Wireless channel and/or band arbitration

ABSTRACT

A computer implemented method comprising receiving, for each of a plurality of wireless routers, location, connection time, wireless band and wireless channel information, calculating, for each of the plurality of wireless routers, a congestion quotient from the received location, connection time, wireless band and wireless channel information, the congestion quotient defining the likelihood of destructive interference at the respective wireless router, identifying a wireless router with a congestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold, determining changes in wireless band and/or wireless channel for the identified wireless router that would lower the congestion quotient for the identified wireless router, and transmitting the determined changes to the identified wireless router.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to wireless technology, and moreparticularly to managing congestion amongst wireless routers.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communication involves the transmission of information over adistance without help of wires, cables or any other forms of electricalconductors. The transmitted distance can be anywhere between a fewmeters and thousands of kilometers. Wireless networks utilize radiowaves and/or microwaves to maintain communication channels betweencomputers and other network devices. Wi-Fi is the most common form usedin homes including wireless access points, routers, and adapters. (Note:the term “Wi-Fi” may be subject to trademark rights in variousjurisdictions throughout the world and are used here only in referenceto the products or services properly denominated by the marks to theextent that such trademark rights may exist.)

Wireless routers are the foundation of a wireless network. Broadbandrouters generally combine the functions of a traditional switch,firewall, and wireless access point. Wireless hotspots provide Internetaccess using Wi-Fi access points installed in airports, hotels, andother public places.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a computerimplemented method is provided comprising receiving, for each of aplurality of wireless routers, location, connection time, wireless bandand wireless channel information; calculating, for each of the pluralityof wireless routers, a congestion quotient from the received location,connection time, wireless band and wireless channel information, thecongestion quotient defining the likelihood of destructive interferenceat the corresponding wireless router; identifying a wireless router witha congestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold;determining changes in wireless band and/or wireless channel for theidentified wireless router that would lower the congestion quotient forthe identified wireless router; and transmitting the determined changesto the identified wireless router.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a system isprovided comprising a processor arranged to receive, for each of aplurality of wireless routers, location, connection time, wireless bandand wireless channel information; calculate, for each of the pluralityof wireless routers, a congestion quotient from the received location,connection time, wireless band and wireless channel information, thecongestion quotient defining the likelihood of destructive interferenceat the corresponding wireless router; identify a wireless router with acongestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold; determinechanges in wireless band and/or wireless channel for the identifiedwireless router that would lower the congestion quotient for theidentified wireless router; and transmit the determined changes to theidentified wireless router.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a computer programproduct is provided for controlling a server, the computer programproduct comprising a computer readable storage medium having programinstructions stored thereon, the program instructions when executed by aprocessor to cause the processor to receive, for each of a plurality ofwireless routers, location, connection time, wireless band and wirelesschannel information; calculate, for each of the plurality of wirelessrouters, a congestion quotient from the received location, connectiontime, wireless band and wireless channel information, the congestionquotient defining the likelihood of destructive interference at thecorresponding wireless router; identify a wireless router with acongestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold; determinechanges in wireless band and/or wireless channel for the identifiedwireless router that would lower the congestion quotient for theidentified wireless router; and transmit the determined changes to theidentified wireless router.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, byway of example only, with reference to the following drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a house with a wireless router in oneembodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of two houses with corresponding wirelessrouters in one embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method of operating a server according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of five houses with corresponding wirelessrouters in one embodiment according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a server in one embodiment according tothe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a wireless router 10 within a house 12. Broadband and Wi-Fiservices are often present in an end user's home. Many of such servicesand applications that are used rely on a network connection. Forexample, in a typical family home users may consume VOD (video ondemand), IPTV (television over the Internet) and/or VoIP (voice over IP,i.e. phone dialling over the Internet) services alone, as well asadditional services. The users must have mobile and other Wi-Fiservices. As users in urban areas and cities increase, uptake inbroadband services is continually increasing. In some embodiments of thepresent invention, the router 10 connects to a wide area network such asInternet through a fixed line telephony system and communicates withlocal devices via a local wireless connection such as Wi-Fi.

As both users and Wi-Fi usage increase, more routers with Wi-Ficapability are deployed in each user's home. One of the difficultieswith this arrangement is that modern home router systems typically allowWi-Fi to be broadcast on a single channel only. However, if differentWi-Fi routers are deployed in close proximity and are using a similarWi-Fi channel, this can lead to poor quality of service for all endusers as a result of destructive interference. It is possible to performa number of manual workarounds, for example, a user can run a Wi-Fianalysis tool and determines which channels are in use. The user canthen determine which channels are overloaded and which channels haverelatively little usage. With this knowledge the user can then manuallychange their channel and hopes the channel does not become overloaded.Additionally most Wi-Fi routers have an option to set the Wi-Fi channelto automatically choose which is supposed to pick the least congestedchannel. However, in practice this feature does not appear to work wellas expected.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a system and method areprovided in home 12 that can improve the use of wireless routers 10 byreducing the destructive interference. In the system, router 10 hasfewer channel changes compared to many individual routers or networkingdevices that manage local channel changes. Further, router 10 candetermine which devices connect including where and if there is atemporal movement in coverage. Additionally, router 10 is aware of thetime of connectivity when a device connects. The Wi-Fi router 10 canassign a provisional Wi-Fi band and/or channel, and necessaryinformation is communicated back to a central server (not shown in FIG.1). The central server system determines a preferred channel for a givenhousehold based on a quality of service value. The central server systemarbitrates in real-time as more or less different routers are added to ageographical location.

As home broadband services permeate to more households and Wi-Fihotspots become more and more available, there is a need to ensure thatcongestion of services does not become a problem. In densely populatedlocations, the concern is more immediate as the large number of wirelessrouters increase the likelihood of destructive interference. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 2 according to some embodiments of the presentinvention, if two users in opposite sides of a semi-detached house 12use routers 10 a and 10 b that are set to the same Wi-Fi band and/orchannel, then the routers 10 a and 10 b will potentially suffercongestion, especially if additional local users have their routers (notshown in FIG. 2) configured on the same band.

Each router 10 (e.g., routers 10 a and 10 b) collects a number ofmetrics such as the number and type of devices that connect, the Wi-Fichannel and band required, and/or connectivity and duration ofconnection statistics. Each router 10 aggregates this information andreturns the obtained information to a remote central server 14 foradditional analysis. The central server 14 performs analysis on routerconfigurations within a local region and calculates a congestionquotient for each router 10. The central server 14 arbitrates Wi-Fi bandand/or channel in the local region based on the congestion quotients.Further, the central server 14 arbitrates dynamically as routers areadded and removed from the local region. The central server 14 instructsthe routers 10 to change their band and/or channel accordingly

The congestion quotient can be represented in the form of a visual queueso that system administrators can visually determine the level ofcongestion of router devices, for example, in the form of red=highlycongested, yellow=moderately congested and green=low congestion. Eachend user would see the congestion level of their own router 10. A webservice could be provided, for example, where users are able to accessthe information related to their specific wireless router 10 and thelevel of congestion can be presented as a single colour as discussed, sothat a user can see the calculated level of congestion for their ownrouter 10.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting a first method according to the presentinvention. In step S305, for each of a plurality of wireless routers(e.g., routers 10 a and 10 b in FIG. 2), information on location,connection time, wireless band and wireless channel is received. Eachrouter will aggregate this information and transmit the information to acentral server (e.g., the central server 14 in FIG. 2). The locationinformation may be a GPS (global positing system) co-ordinate, forexample. The connection time can be the average number of daily hoursthat each router is in use, for example, taken as an average over a weekor month. The wireless band and wireless channel information aretechnical data concerning the operation of a specific router in questionfrom the plurality of wireless routers.

Step S310 comprises calculating, for each of the plurality of wirelessrouters, a congestion quotient based on the received location,connection time, wireless band and wireless channel information. Thecongestion quotient defines the likelihood of destructive interferenceat a corresponding wireless router. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, the congestion quotient can be calculated as a linearfunction that defines a probability that a specific router will sufferfrom destructive interference at any time. Each router can be compareddirectly with the remaining routers of the plurality of routers that arephysically adjacent as determined by the location information. If theyare using the same band and channel then the likelihood of congestionwill depend upon the average hours being used. “Adjacent” can meanrouters within a specific range (such as ten meters), or can be in thesense of which routers are the closest orthogonally.

Step S315 identifies a wireless router with a congestion quotientgreater than a predetermined threshold. Step S320 comprises determiningchanges in wireless band and/or wireless channel for the identifiedwireless router, and the changes would lower the congestion quotient forthe identified wireless router. In step S325, the determined changes tothe identified wireless router is transmitted back from the centralsever (e.g., the central server 14 in FIG. 2) to the identified router(e.g., the routers 10 a or 10 b in FIG. 2). For example, the centralserver determines any router of the plurality of routers that has acongestion quotient above a predetermined level, such as 50%. Thecentral server then determines the preferred channel and/or band changesto the corresponding router in question, and transmits the changes tothe corresponding router such that the corresponding rougher change itsband and/or channel accordingly.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the two routers 10 a and 10 b may be onthe same band and channel One of the routers (e.g., router 10 a) is onfor an average of two hours a day, while the other router (e.g., router10 b) is on for an average of fourteen hours a day. The informationabout location, usage, band and channel is sent from both routers to thecentral server 14, which calculates a congestion quotient for eachrouter. Router 10 a will have a quotient of 0.58 representing a 58%chance of congestion (since the adjacent (closest) router (router 10 b)is on for fourteen hours out of twenty four hours) and router 10 b willhave a quotient of 0.08 representing an 8% chance of congestion (sincethe adjacent router 10 a is on for two hours out of twenty four hours).

The central server 14 will instruct router 10 a to change channel to anew channel number that will ensure that the likelihood of congestion isreduced. This example in FIG. 2 is simplified as the calculation of thecongestion quotient may take into account the daytime that the routersare active for which time period users do not use the router, since itis common for users to access their wireless routers at the same time ofday (usually the evening). However, if on average the two routers 10 aand 10 b are being used at different times of day, even though they areon the same channel, then the congestion quotient for both routers 10 aand 10 b would be lower than the threshold of 50% which determineswhether the central server 14 take actions to lower the chance ofdestructive interference.

In a more complex situation, for example, where there are six routers ina locality, two of which have a congestion quotient above thepredetermined threshold of 50%, then a more complicated process ofdetermining the changes to be made will need to be carried out. Ingeneral, the central server 14 will consider changing the channel of awireless router first, as this is less likely to cause configurationproblems in the home using the router. In some embodiments of thepresent invention, for each router 10 that needs changes, the routers 10are considered individually in turn. If the channel of a router inquestion is the same or adjacent to the channel of another physicallyadjacent router (which is highly likely since this will drive a highercongestion quotient), then the server 14 will consider changing thechannel of the router to a channel number that is not in use by anyother physically adjacent router. Since there are twelve channels in theWi-Fi system, there will always be at least one unused channel availablethat can be selected. The same process will be carried out for thesecond router with the high congestion quotient that is part of thelocality. Additionally, band changes will be made, if the only availablechannel(s) is adjacent in number to an existing channel in question,which still will lead to some destructive interference. In this case, ifthe two routers that need to be changed are both on the longer rangeband 2, 4 Ghz, then in addition to changing the channel, they can beinstructed to change to the 5 Ghz band. Band changes will normally beused if channel changes cannot eliminate the problem of interference.

In some embodiments of the present invention, each of the Wi-Fi routers10 has a software agent which allows for the gathering of localinformation concerning connected Wi-Fi devices, and connectivity timesand durations. Each Wi-Fi router aggregates this information and sendsback to the central sever 14 for additional analysis. The central server14 looks at the plurality of Wi-Fi router within a specific local regionand a congestion quotient is then calculated for each routing device 10.The central server 14 then arbitrates which Wi-Fi channel is preferredappropriate to each router 10 based on a factorial analysis of gathereddata and the congestion quotient. The central server 14 continues toreceive metrics dynamically for each router 10 and in turn arbitrates inreal-time as devices and/or routers are added and/or removed.

FIG. 4 gives an example system involving five routers 10 (A, B, C, D,and E) according to some embodiments of the present invention, which arelocated within five separate houses 12 that are in the same locality.Each router 10 gathers data locally over a predetermined time periodsuch as a week. This data will comprise the details of the local devices(such as mobile phones and laptops, etc.) that connect to a specificwireless router 10 and the times and durations of the connections to thespecific router 10. This information is transmitted to the centralserver 14, along with information concerning the band and channel thatare used by the routers 10 as well as their locations. All of therouters 10 shown in the FIG. 4 will perform this operation, providingthe server 14 with the necessary information to arbitrate the channelsand bands being used.

The channel data represents the centre frequency used for the wirelesscommunications (Wi-Fi currently uses fourteen channels) and destructiveinterference can occur on adjacent channels as well as on identicalchannels. The band data represents the data rate and range of thewireless signal, with higher data rates normally implying a short rangeof signal. The server 14 will calculate a congestion quotient for eachof the wireless routers 10 for which data has been received. Thiscalculation will be based on using data for physically adjacent routers(as defined by a 3-dimensional range such as ten meters), but will alsotake into account the band being used as a longer range signal will havea wider geographic spread and could therefore interfere with routersthat are further away.

Table 1 shows the calculated congestion quotients for the routers 10 (A,B, C, D, and E) shown in FIG. 4 according to some embodiments of thepresent invention. The table 1 is populated by rows where each rowrepresents a connected router. The five routers shown in the Table 1 arethe five routers A to E shown in FIG. 4. The columns of the Table 1 arerouter name, GPS co-ordinates (location), average connection time, Wi-Fiband, Wi-Fi channel and congestion quotient, respectively. The Table 1is created by the server 14 from the information received from thedifferent routers 10 (A, B, C, D, and E). The last column is thecongestion quotient being calculated by the server 14 from theinformation received. If any router reports new data or any routers areadded or removed, then the congestion quotients are recalculateddynamically.

TABLE 1 Calculated congestion quotients for the routers shown in FIG. 4.Average Name Location time Band Channel Quotient A x1, y1 4.5 hours 2.4Ghz 6 0.55 B x2, y2 7.9 hours 2.4 Ghz 1 0.00 C x3, y3 12.7 hours  2.4Ghz 6 0.35 D x4, y4 3.2 hours 2.4 Ghz 7 0.55 E x5, y5 6.5 hours   5 Ghz8 0.15

The calculation of the congestion quotient by the server 14 can becarried out in a number of different ways, depending upon theimplementation used by the server 14. In some embodiments of the presentinvention, a linear function can be used that considers a router andcompares that router with the physically adjacent other routers. Theidentification of which other routers are adjacent is based on thelocation defined by the GPS co-ordinates and on the band being used. Forexample, bin FIG. 4, all orthogonally adjacent routers are capable ofdestructive interference. Also, since routers B and C both use the 2.4Ghz band, they can interfere with each other, and are consideredadjacent physically even though they are not orthogonally adjacent inthis arrangement in FIG. 4. The router E uses the shorter range 5 Ghzband so does not interfere with router B although the reverse is not thecase.

Once the server 14 has identified which routers are adjacent and maycause interference/congestion, then the congestion quotient can beworked out from the average connection time and the channels being used.For example, routers A and C in FIG. 4 both use channel 6 (as shown inTable 1), so there is a higher likelihood of congestion. Further routerD being on channel 7 also potentially causes interference since adjacentchannels can still provide destructive interference. The linear functioncomputes the various factors involved and produces a congestion quotientfor each of the routers. The congestion quotient represents a chance ofdestructive interference occurring on a scale of 0 to 1, for each of thewireless routers. In this case the routers A and D both have congestionquotients over 50%, thus may be instructed to change to a differentchannel that reduces the likelihood of interference.

FIG. 5 shows a central server according to some embodiments of thepresent invention, such as the server 14 in FIGS. 2 and 4. the centralserver is a system that comprises a processor 18 and a network interface20 connected to the processor 18, which connects to routers (e.g.routers 10 in FIG. 4), for example via a network such as the Internet.Also connected to the processor 18 is a local drive 22. The processor 18is controlled according to a computer program product on a computerreadable medium 24, for example, a CD-ROM. The computer program productcomprises a set of instructions that are executed by the processor 18 inorder to control the operation of the server 14.

The processor 18 is arranged to receive, for each of a plurality ofwireless routers their location, connection time, wireless band andwireless channel information. The processor 18 is then able tocalculate, for each of the plurality of wireless routers, a congestionquotient from the received location, connection time, wireless band andwireless channel information, the congestion quotient defining thelikelihood of destructive interference at the respective wirelessrouter. The processor 18 identifies a wireless router with a congestionquotient greater than a predetermined threshold, determines changes inwireless band and/or wireless channel for the identified wireless routerthat would lower the congestion quotient for the identified wirelessrouter, and transmits the determined changes to the identified wirelessrouter.

The processor 18 is arranged, in the preferred embodiment, whencalculating, for each of the plurality of wireless routers, a congestionquotient from the received location, connection time, wireless band andwireless channel information, (where the congestion quotient defines thelikelihood of destructive interference at the respective wirelessrouter), to compare, for each of the plurality of wireless routers,connection time, band and channel information with physically adjacentrouters (where adjacent is based on physical range or closest router).The processor 18 is arranged, when identifying a wireless router with acongestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold, to identifya wireless router with a congestion quotient greater than a 50% chanceof destructive interference at the respective wireless router. Anyrouter that has a congestion quotient above 0.5 (on a scale of 0 to 1)will have a reconfiguration determined by the server 14. This will be inthe form of a channel and/or band switch. For example, a channel may bechosen that is not in use by any physically adjacent router and/or therouter may be requested to switch to a different band to avoidcongestion. In this case, the processor 18 is arranged, when determiningchanges in wireless band and/or wireless channel for the identifiedwireless router that would lower the congestion quotient for theidentified wireless router, to set the wireless band and/or wirelesschannel to be different from the wireless band and/or wireless channelof a physically adjacent router.

When making the determination of the congestion quotient the processor18, when calculating, for each of the plurality of wireless routers, acongestion quotient from the received location, connection time,wireless band and wireless channel information, the congestion quotientdefining the likelihood of destructive interference at the respectivewireless router, assigns a percentage likelihood of destructiveinterference at the respective wireless router in respect of each of thereceived location, connection time, wireless band and wireless channelinformation.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer system for managing wireless channelsand/or bands, the computer system comprising: a processor (s) set; and acomputer readable storage medium; wherein: the processor set isstructured, located, connected, and/or programmed to run programinstructions stored on the computer readable storage medium; and theprogram instructions, when executed by the processor set, cause theprocess of managing wireless channels and/or bands by: receiving, by oneor more processors at a central server, from each of a plurality ofwireless routers within a local region over a predetermined time period,information on location, number of connected local devices, type of theconnected local devices, connection time, wireless band and wirelesschannel, wherein the plurality of wireless routers within the localregion are using a same wireless band and/or wireless channel, andwherein each connected local device for which information is receivedutilizes one or more of the plurality of wireless routers for a networkconnection; calculating, by one or more processors at the centralserver, for each of the plurality of wireless routers within the localregion, a congestion quotient from the received information on location,number of connected local devices, type of the connected local devices,connection time, wireless band and wireless channel, wherein thecongestion quotient defines a likelihood of destructive interference atthe corresponding each wireless router; identifying in real-time, by oneor more processors at the central server, one or more wireless routersof the plurality of wireless routers within the local region with acongestion quotient greater than a predetermined threshold; determining,by one or more processors at the central server, changes in wirelessband and/or wireless channel for the identified one or more wirelessrouters, wherein the changes lower the congestion quotient for theidentified one or more wireless routers within the local region; andtransmitting, by one or more processors at the central server, thedetermined changes to the identified one or more wireless routers withinthe local region.
 2. The computer system of claim 1, whereincalculating, by one or more processors at the central server, for eachof the plurality of wireless routers within the local region, acongestion quotient, includes comparing, for each of the plurality ofwireless routers, number of connected local devices, type of theconnected local devices, connection time, band and channel informationwith physically adjacent routers.
 3. The computer system of claim 1,wherein identifying in real-time, by one or more processors at thecentral server, a wireless router with a congestion quotient greaterthan a predetermined threshold includes identifying a wireless routerwithin the local region with a congestion quotient greater than a 50%chance of destructive interference at such wireless router.
 4. Thecomputer system of claim 1, wherein calculating, by one or moreprocessors at the central server, for each of the plurality of wirelessrouters within the local region, a congestion quotient includesassigning a percentage likelihood of destructive interference at thecorresponding each wireless router with respect to each of the receivedlocation, number of connected local devices, type of the connected localdevices, connection time, wireless band and wireless channelinformation.
 5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein determining, byone or more processors at the central server, changes in wireless bandand/or wireless channel for the identified wireless router includessetting the wireless band and/or wireless channel of the identifiedwireless router to be different from the wireless band and/or wirelesschannel of a router physically adjacent to the identified wirelessrouter.
 6. A computer program product for managing wireless channelsand/or bands, the computer program product comprising a computerreadable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith,the program instructions executable by a processor to cause theprocessor to cause the process of managing wireless channels and/orbands by: receiving, by one or more processors at a central server, fromeach of a plurality of wireless routers within a local region over apredetermined time period, information on location, number of connectedlocal devices, type of the connected local devices, connection time,wireless band and wireless channel, wherein the plurality of wirelessrouters within the local region are using a same wireless band and/orwireless channel, and wherein each connected local device for whichinformation is received utilizes one or more of the plurality ofwireless routers for a network connection; calculating, by one or moreprocessors at the central server, for each of the plurality of wirelessrouters within the local region, a congestion quotient from the receivedinformation on location, number of connected local devices, type of theconnected local devices, connection time, wireless band and wirelesschannel, wherein the congestion quotient defines a likelihood ofdestructive interference at the corresponding each wireless router;identifying in real-time, by one or more processors at the centralserver, one or more wireless routers of the plurality of wirelessrouters within the local region with a congestion quotient greater thana predetermined threshold; determining, by one or more processors at thecentral server, changes in wireless band and/or wireless channel for theidentified one or more wireless routers, wherein the changes lower thecongestion quotient for the identified one or more wireless routerswithin the local region; and transmitting, by one or more processors atthe central server, the determined changes to the identified one or morewireless routers within the local region.
 7. The computer programproduct of claim 6, wherein calculating, by one or more processors atthe central server, for each of the plurality of wireless routers withinthe local region, a congestion quotient, includes comparing, for each ofthe plurality of wireless routers, number of connected local devices,type of the connected local devices, connection time, band and channelinformation with physically adjacent routers.
 8. The computer programproduct of claim 6, wherein identifying in real-time, by one or moreprocessors at the central server, one or more wireless routers includesidentifying a wireless router within the local region with a congestionquotient greater than a 50% chance of destructive interference at suchwireless router.
 9. The computer program product of claim 6, whereincalculating, by one or more processors at the central server, for eachof the plurality of wireless routers within the local region, acongestion quotient includes assigning a percentage likelihood ofdestructive interference at the corresponding each wireless router withrespect to each of the received location, number of connected localdevices, type of the connected local devices, connection time, wirelessband and wireless channel information.
 10. The computer program productof claim 6, wherein determining, by one or more processors at thecentral server, changes in wireless band and/or wireless channel for theidentified wireless router includes setting the wireless band and/orwireless channel of the identified wireless router to be different fromthe wireless band and/or wireless channel of a router physicallyadjacent to the identified wireless router.